Juvenile upset at report card sets house on fire, shoots gun

UPDATE - 5:25PM - The juvenile is said to be between 13 years old. He called his parents when he lit the front part of the home on fire. When Reno Fire Department arrived, they saw the juvenile in the front room with a gun and held off taking any action until police arrived.

Reno Police say the juvenile shot at family portraits.

Peavine Elementary was on lock down briefly during this situation.

The gun has been recovered and secured by Reno Police Department.

Juvenile in police car (News 4 Anchor/Reporter Elias Johnson)

RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) -- Reno Police say a juvenile was upset over something dealing with his report card and started lighting his home on fire in the front room with gasoline and shot a gun inside.

Police say he pointed the gun at his parents. By the time Reno Police arrived on scene, the juvenile had ditched the gun. He was taken at gunpoint outside the home.

He is facing arson charges and assault with a deadly weapon charges.

A bomb squad is responding to the home to make sure there isn't any other damage.

Well ... as lovely as the parents might be - they might want to spend a little less time being involved in the community, and more involved with their son. He obviously has issues, and there certainly must have been signs prior to this incident. He is not being taught how to deal with situations properly - obviously...as MANY kids in this country are not. We hear stories ALL THE TIME that prove this. It's the old ' everybody doing their own thing' syndrome ... meanwhile the ship is going down and no one noticed.

I just want to say that I also know this family. They are involved in the community and are great parents. I pray that their son will get the help he is seeking and the family will find some comfort during this awful time.

You are right that a child should not be able to access guns, but a teenager with enough time to search for keys to the safe (which I know was locked...always is) might be a little different/uncommon scenario. Parents have to work, they can't just be hovering every second, and when a teenager comes home from school the last thing a parent thinks about is that the kid is going to rummage through EVERYTHING, find the keys and go off the deep end. These parents have raised three kids, all of which up until this point have NEVER done anything but good. I mean they are normal kids...get grounded, or scolded, but nothing irrational like this. These parents are crushed and ultimately cannot even process mentally what is going on. It would be a different scenario if the kid had a history of school trouble or violence, but in fact....it is polar opposite. They had no way of knowing. So the facts are, guns were in a safe...LOCKED! The kid turned the house upside down and found the keys. He then stashed a gun, and set the house on fire. Thank goodness nobody was hurt. The fire was put out, and the kid will be in A LOT of trouble but will hopefully get some emotional help. Just try to stop and imagine if this were your perfectly normal, healthy, athletic teenage boy.... What would you do? And what would you hope others would do? DeputyDawg, you are EXACTLY on point. The house fire is seemingly the bigger issue. Thankfully it was not worse and only the living room is a wreck from what I am understanding. There are way too many people ready and willing to get rid of guns, but the issue is not the gun, it is the people. Mental health people, mental health. Obviously this boy needs help and hopefully we as a society don't just tear the parents (who are good parents) apart and instead ban together and get this kid some help. This was NOT the parents fault. AT ALL!!

How funny, the lefties come out speaking about the gun in this case and never mention the fire that could have had the potential to destroy the home and homes around it. I check the comments all the time and rarely see a lefty come out against the illegal aliens who commit crimes with guns. I guess that's okay as long as Obama and Holder giving them guns.

So assuming the parents are law abiding, recreational gun owners it is still a responsibility of the owners to safely store their weapons. Even if everyone in the home is comfortable with handeling the weapons for lets say hunting, their guns could have been acessed by anyone family or not within the home and they are an open risk. Just because the child has used the gun does not make him elegible to be a respondible owner of a gun to acess at any time.

@ jjenika1 -- And suppose that the guns were locked up?? The parents DO have a safe, and the guns were in it. Funny thing about safes...they are too heavy for a thief to take off with and a thief will never take the time to search for a key, BUT when you have several hours to search for keys because you are home from school (like a normal teenager that has NEVER done anything that would have remotely eluded to such a thing) and your parents are WORKING....you can find them. This is a small 3 bedroom home....not too hard to search for something like this. What are your suggestions now. This boy has never had a history of ANYTHING. He is an athlete, an honors student, and well-liked by his peers. These people had no idea that he was struggling. Kind of like suicide. I am a teacher and when a student that hangs themselves appears TOTALLY FINE the day of or day before they take their life we all act surprised. Interestingly however, the student is FINE....TOTALLY FINE. They have resolved that death is better than what they are living with. So yes, they appear fine. This boy has appeared JUST FINE....no mental history, no health issues, no family issues outside of normal parenting. You know what happened is that he goes to one school and his parents said, you don't hold up your end and keep your grades up....we are switching you to the school you are zoned for. Consequently he apparently didn't, and his parents were prepared to BE PARENTS!! The kid flipped....you can't plan for this. Your ignorance exudes in the comment you made. Get your facts straight before you start shifting the blame.

Maybe people should lock up their guns so this kind of thing doesn't happen. No kid should have access to a gun, especially one with ammo!!! BAD PARENTS! Buy a gun safe and help keep everyone safe for this boy!

I am a close friend to this family. The reason they have guns is because they are law abiding GOOD people that enjoy the sport of hunting. Their son ALSO enjoys hunting and has never given these people any reason to keep the guns away. Bottom line, this family is now broken and this boy is going to have a long road to emotional recovery. Please quit gossiping and focus on the mental health of our teens. Thank goodness nobody was permanently hurt or even killed. This was a cry for attention and help. Offer up support and perhaps state, "what can we do to help this family"....NOT why were there guns?!? or What did the parents do?!? Or this kid needs help! WELL DUH HE NEEDS HELP!!! The parents are acutely aware of this. He has a big brother that is a 4.0 sophomore in college, and a kid sister that is also a great student. Hey, his parents work good jobs and they are good people in the community. This is not a typical case of "white trash" "Should have known...". This is COMPLETELY out of the blue, and any of your kids could blow a gasket too! Please please please don't criticize until you know what you are talking about. They are already under a microscope as it is....

SparksB2, I stopped a long time ago. Guess the kid either didn't get the grades he wanted or parents threatened to ground him because of what he got. But the question that's begs to be answered is "What was he doing with a gun and how did he get it?"